Thomas Friedman專欄：Lead, Follow or Move Aside

佛里曼一年多前這篇專欄文章，肯定對Wal Mart上週在北京供應商高峰會宣布施行「綠色供應鍊」一事脫不了干係，如果沒有意外，他在新書中《世界又熱又平又擠》一定繼續表揚這樣的模範生行為。只是，節能減碳固然可以在某些層面帶來經濟上的效益，但整體來看，最後絕對不是皆大歡喜的白吃午餐，那誰是買單者呢。初步看來，Wal Mart是要拉供應商做墊背...



Lead, Follow or Move Aside



September 26, 2007

By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN


China today is entering a really delicate phase on the climate-energy issue — the phase I like to call “The Wal-Mart environmental moment.” I wish the same could be said of America and President Bush.


The “Wal-Mart environmental moment” starts with the C.E.O. adopting a green branding strategy as a purely defensive, public relations, marketing move. Then an accident happens — someone in the shipping department takes it seriously and comes up with a new way to package the latest product and saves $100,000. This gets the attention of the C.E.O., who turns to his P.R. adviser and says, “Well, isn’t that interesting? Get me a sustainability expert. Let’s do this some more.”


The company then hires a sustainability officer, and he starts showing how green design, manufacturing and materials can save money in other areas. Then the really smart C.E.O.’s realize they have to become their own C.E.O. — chief energy officer — and they start demanding that energy efficiency become core to everything the company does, from how its employees travel to how its products are manufactured.


That is the transition that Lee Scott, Wal-Mart’s C.E.O., has presided over in the past few years.


Last July, Mr. Scott was visiting a Wal-Mart in Las Vegas on a day when the temperature was more than 100 degrees. He happened to notice that a Wal-Mart staple — inexpensive Styrofoam coolers — were not being promoted by the store’s associates. As Andrew Ruben, Wal-Mart’s vice president for sustainability, told me: “Lee walked into the store and said, ‘It’s 105 degrees. Why aren’t we selling any coolers?’ The associates said, ‘We don’t want to sell Styrofoam coolers because of their impact on the environment.’ So Lee called us afterwards and said: ‘We’re going to have to figure this out.’ By that he meant innovation of a different kind of cooler” that doesn’t come from petroleum-based Styrofoam, which is not biodegradable and usually not recycled.


Wal-Mart on Monday also announced a partnership with the Carbon Disclosure Project (C.D.P.) to measure the amount of energy used to create products throughout its supply chain — many of which come from China.


Said C.D.P. Chief Executive Paul Dickinson: “Wal-Mart will encourage its suppliers to measure and manage their greenhouse gas emissions, and ultimately reduce the total carbon footprint of Wal-Mart’s indirect emissions. We look forward to other global corporations following Wal-Mart’s lead.”


China’s leadership is not where Lee Scott is yet. Chinese officials still put their highest priority on growing G.D.P. — their bottom line. But for the first time, the costs of this breakneck growth are becoming so obvious on China’s air, glaciers and rivers that the leadership asked for briefings on global warming. Many Chinese mayors are looking to get clean-technology industries — like wind turbines and solar — started in their cities.


At such a key time, if the U.S. government adopted a real carbon-reducing strategy, as California and Wal-Mart have, rather than the obfuscations of the Bush team, it would have a huge impact on China and only trigger more innovation in America.


Mr. Bush will be convening his climate photo op — oops, I mean “conference” — in Washington tomorrow, which will include Chinese and Indian officials. But, as Rob Watson, the C.E.O. of EcoTech International, which works on environmental issues in China put it: “The Chinese are not going to take anything we say seriously if we don’t set an example ourselves.”


David Moskovitz, who directs the Regulatory Assistance Project, a nonprofit that helps promote green policies in China, was even more blunt: “The most frequent and difficult question we get in China with every policy initiative we put forward is: ‘If it is so good, why aren’t you doing it?’ It’s hard to answer — and somewhat embarrassing. So we point to good examples that some American states, or cities, or companies are implementing — but not to the federal government. We can’t point to America.”


Too bad. “It was America which put environmentalism on the world’s agenda in the 1970s and ’80s,” recalled Glenn Prickett, a senior vice president for Conservation International. “But since then, somehow, the wealthiest and most powerful country on the planet has gone to the back of the line.”


Leadership is about “follow me” not “after you.” Getting our national climate regulations in order is necessary, but it will not be sufficient to move China. We have to show them what Wal-Mart is showing its competitors — that green is not just right for the world, it is better, more profitable, more healthy, more innovative, more efficient, more successful. If Wal-Mart can lead, and California can lead, why can’t America?


沃爾瑪首推綠色供應鏈中國供應商臨大考


摘自：經濟觀察報 （2008年10月27日）


不僅要物美價廉，還要環保、節能和透明，這是全球最大的零售商美國沃爾瑪百貨公司對1萬多家中國供應商提出的新要求。


作為全球範圍內推進 「綠色供應鏈」的第一步，沃爾瑪為中國賣家們規定了一系列詳盡而嚴苛的新標準，但它卻似乎不願分擔由此引發的成本上升。


供應商們已在成本飆升和需求萎縮的「夾擊」下艱難度日，面對強勢又「吝嗇」的沃爾瑪，它們幾乎沒有選擇的空間。


供應商的新指標


明年1月開始，中國供應商將與沃爾瑪執行一份新的供貨協議。這份協議是沃爾瑪新近提出的 「負責任採購」綠色宣言，分解為一個個明確而嚴格的指標，讓商品從採購原材料到賣給消費者的整個供應鏈更加環保，更具社會責任感。


沃爾瑪新協議中規定，所有廠家必須承諾遵守所在地法規，達到嚴格的社會責任和環保標準，並提供相關的認證和證明。這一協議將首先在中國供應商範圍內實行，三年後擴大到沃爾瑪全球供應商。


「(供應商)達到社會和環境標準不是選擇，是必須。一個對加班時間、員工年齡造假，向河流中排放廢料和化學物質，不繳稅，不履行合同的公司，最終產品質量也不會合格。」10月22日在北京召開的可持續發展峰會上，沃爾瑪總裁兼首席執行官李斯閣(LeeScott)對台下大約1000名供應商說。


這次峰會吹響了沃爾瑪打造 「綠色供應鏈」的號角。


三年前，李斯閣發起了沃爾瑪企業環境可持續發展計劃，承諾100%使用可再生能源，實現零浪費，出售對資源和環境有利的產品。如今，他著手把這一規模宏大的計劃延伸到供應鏈的每一個環節，並將起點選在了中國。


目前，沃爾瑪在中國共有1萬餘家供應商，每年從中國直接採購價值約90億美元商品。價格低廉的「中國製造」支撐了沃爾瑪的「天天低價」，但一些供應商為壓低成本而壓搾員工、污染環境、犧牲質量的做法，也讓沃爾瑪備受爭議和指責。


沃爾瑪副董事長麥道克(MikeDuke)接受本報採訪時表示，中國供應商對公司非常重要，大量中國商品通過沃爾瑪銷售到全球各地。沃爾瑪所有供應商、合作夥伴都必須採取對社會和環境更負責的方式來經營，沒有哪個國家比中國更適合確立並實施我們的可持續發展目標。


除了要求中國供應商更嚴格地遵規守紀，沃爾瑪還對它們加大節能力度、提高產品質量、增加透明度提出了更高的要求，到2012年，沃爾瑪直接採購的中國200家主要供應商提高能效20%，減少所有產品5%的包裝，消除因產品質量不過關而發生退貨的現象，所有直接供應商申報加工工廠的名稱和廠址，從環保和社會責任最高等級工廠採購的產品達到95%。


在「嚴以律人」的同時，沃爾瑪也為自己設定了一系列節能環保的新指標。它計劃到2010年，中國將開設一家節能40%的新型環保示範店，並減少現有商場能源消耗的30%；在未來2年內，將中國所有商場用水量減少50%。


在李斯閣眼中，沃爾瑪這些新行動的核心是將可持續發展理念融入運營環節和供應鏈，以高能效、對社會和環境負責的方式生產和銷售商品，讓顧客省錢的同時生活得更好。 誰為成本上升買單 如果沃爾瑪為自己和供應商提出的新目標都能實現，它們將聯手創造一個新世界。但眼下一個尚待解決的新問題是，誰來為供應商新增的成本買單，尤其是在成本大幅上升而需求明顯放緩的現在。


按照沃爾瑪的說法，如果一個工廠沒有達到新要求，沃爾瑪將幫助他們制定計劃和措施來解決問題。如果仍然不能改善，沃爾瑪將拒絕與它合作。


一位業內人士說，為了達到沃爾瑪新提出的環保節能指標，短期之內增加技術和設備投資是必須的，但很多供應商原本就利潤微薄，經濟危機爆發後資金更為緊張。如果沃爾瑪不分擔一部分成本或提高採購價格，有些供應商恐怕難以完成新指標。


現在來看，以善於控制成本著稱的沃爾瑪還沒有設計出一套系統的方案，幫助供應商應對「綠色供應鏈」導致的成本上升。 在被多個記者追問後，李斯閣籠統地表示，沃爾瑪削減自己的毛利，製造商提高效率，或者消費者多付一點錢，這些都是可能的選擇。


「我知道我們對供應商的要求很多，特別是這個時候。」李斯閣說，短期內為產品質量增加投入意味著減少公司付出長期代價。長期來看，可持續發展商業模式將降低所有人的成本。


從以往經驗來看，沃爾瑪通常會要求供應商自己消化新增成本。國際紙業(香港)有限公司是沃爾瑪的包裝供應商之一，該公司一位人士表示，沃爾瑪曾多次與該公司探討控制成本，主要措施是通過優化設計來減少包裝的用量，並在包裝上減少印刷量，由此新增加的設計成本由企業自己承擔。


不過，由於資源節約和生產效率提高，在進行短期投入後，供應商能獲得更多長期收益。一個案例是，沃爾瑪和農產品供應商大連興業源集團一起設計了簡潔實用的水果新包裝，在包裝箱上只用黑字標出產品名稱和產地，省略複雜的彩色圖案。新包裝箱每隻可解決0.7元印刷成本，僅這一項，興業源集團去年就節約了140萬元。